Travis Stoll and the Rabid Raccoon
by Potato Jam 7
Summary: Travis Stoll likes Katie Gardner, but does he like her enough to save her from a fat, evil, vicious, rabid, mean, furry raccoon? Complete randomess, and most importantly, tratie!:)


**Even though I published the Cereal Party not too long ago, I feel like writing more Tratie! Tratie does that to you I guess:). Anyway, this one is going to be totally random, like pretty much all my other Traties, so please forgive the complete randomness!**

**DISCLAIMER: Do I own Percy Jackson and the Olympians? In my dreams. ;)**

"Why Gardener?" Connor asked his brother, Travis. It was one of those annoying summer days where you felt way to hot and sticky to actually do anything, so the two brothers were lying on their bunks, just talking. At first it was about pranks, but then the conversation had drifted over to Katie Gardner.

Travis, who was the older one, and was lying pathetically on his top bunk with his whole upper half off the bunk and dangling in midair above Connor's just shrugged his shoulders in reply. Which was really hard to do when you were lying down like that.

Travis felt his butt slip forward, but he caught himself in the nick of time. _Phew_, he thought, and averted his eyes towards Connor to see what his brother had to say.

"I don't get it," Connor began, "she's not even that hot. She isn't even _cute_! So why do you waste your time on her?"

"It's not really looks that count…" Travis began to murmur, but Connor didn't hear him.

"You have a bad taste in women," Connor said. Travis scrunched up his nose and swung forward in an attempt to slug him in the arm, but since he was lying half in midair, he fell off the bunk, bringing the sheets down with him too.

Connor laughed, but helped him up anyway. "Smoooth," Connor said. Travis gave him the evil eye, but took his brother's hand anyway.

"So…if you're really serious about Gardner, you should definitely write her a love note."

"A love note?! Seriously?! People did that in the time of, like, Shakespeare!" Travis protested.

"Aw, C'mon! Katie's just the type of old stickler that would like that!"

"She's the same age as me! Fourteen!"

"Yeah whatever. You know, some people act older than they look. That's called," at this point, Connor shivered. "_maturity_."

Travis shivered in agreement. Maybe Katie wasn't right for him. He was totally immature, she wasn't. But he liked her. A lot. And besides, opposites attract right?

"I guess we could try it…." Travis said. He got out a piece of lined paper and a pen. He took special care to make sure that the pen wasn't an invisible ink pen.

"Dear Katie," Connor dictated. "No wait, scratch that! It should say: To my darling precious Katie."

"WHAT!? You make it sound like we're married or something!"

"Well, you act like you want to," Connor commented. Travis rolled his eyes at his younger brother. They both were often mistaken for twins, since they looked the same, with the same curly brown hair and ocean blue eyes. The only way to tell them apart was by height: Travis was exactly two inches taller.

Travis jotted down what Connor wrote anyway, because he secretly liked it. Connor watched him, and once he was done, Connor dictated the next verse. "I am madly in love with you. Your hair is so-"

"I can think for myself you know," Travis grumbled. He didn't like it when his younger brother told him what to do, even if they were only a year apart.

"Do you want to think it all up by yourself? Because that's fine with me, I'd rather-"

"Fine, whatever!" Travis said, holding up a hand to stop Connor. "I get it"

A smug smile was plastered onto Connor's face as he told Travis what to write next. "Anyway, like I was saying: Your hair is so sweet smelling, it lulls me into a trance that I cannot wake up from. Your eyes are the most wonderful color, like mud puddles, filled with grass, chemicals, and dog poop. Your face is like a brilliant sun, or perhaps one of those annoying florescent lamps that are so bright I want to punch them. The dimples in your face are so deep, like Death Valley. I love you so much Katie. I would die in a hole without you Katie-"

"No I wouldn't"

"Wouldn't what?"

"Die in a hole. That's a dumb thing to do, just because you like someone."

"Yeah, well. We really have to milk it if we want her to like you."

"OK, fine. Keep going."

Connor picked up from where he left off. "I would die in a hole without you. I would save you if a giant evil gardener-eating tarantula came and decided to eat you. Or if a rabid raccoon tried to bite you. Or if a pegasus came and stampeded on you. Or if-"

"I think we have enough examples. Besides, I probably wouldn't do half those things. Even for Katie."

"Meh. Whatever. What's wrong with lying?" Connor started dictating the letter again. "If we ever had kids-"

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA! You're going waaay to far, bro!" Travis exclaimed, looking slightly disturbed. "I am not having kids with Gardener. I just want to go out with her."

Connor stuck his tongue out, and slouched his shoulders, looking disappointed. "Fine," he whined. "Well, I'm out of ideas. Just say: I love you forever. Eternally yours, Travis."

"You mean, the world's hottest and awesomest dude," Travis corrected.

"Nah. That title goes to me."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

So, being the immature boys they were, Connor and Travis got into a fist fight, and weren't satisfied until both of them got black eyes. "Haha! So there! I gave you a black eye first!" said Travis.

"No, I did!" Connor yelled.

"I did!"

"I did!"

"I did!"

"Me!"

"me!"

So, being the _really_ immature boys they were, Connor and Travis got into a fist fight and weren't satisfied until they both had two black eyes. They looked a bit like raccoons now.

Since there were no more eyes to punch, the two of them sulked in the corner. Neither could remember what they had been fighting about, but neither wanted to say that, because then they would feel dumb. So they just sat there, dumbly, for about thirty minutes, until Travis said, "Well, I'd better go deliver this to Katie."

"Yeah. Good luck, bro," Connor patted Travis on the back and then gave him some very manly advice. "If she says no, be sure to prank her for the next thirty days and nights."

Travis nodded gravely. He felt like he was being sent out to battle. This was serious business. "Wise words, bro. Wise words."

"Here's a bag of jumbo marshmallows. In case she gets mad and punches you you-know-where. It'll soften the blow."

Travis took his survival weapon, gave Connor a very manly nod, and stepped out of the Hermes cabin into the bright sunshine of Camp Half Blood. He was ready for his mission.

OoOoOoOoO

He found her in the strawberry fields, as always. Her wavy brown hair was swept up into a messy ponytail, but not messy on purpose, messy from hard work. Travis liked that. When she looked up to see who was coming, her intense dark green eyes with little flecks of brown bore into his blue ones, and they held each other's gaze for nearly a second. Record time.

"Why are you here Stoll?" her voice was hard and hostile, which was something Travis loved about her. She was so down to Earth.

When Travis didn't reply, she put down the fertilizer, and walked over to him. "I said; why are you here Stoll?!" she sounded even more mad. Travis really couldn't blame her, after what he'd done to her roof.

"I-I-I- just wanted to," Travis's voice quaked as he patted the bag of marshmallows in his other hand for reassurance. It was _hard _asking a girl out!

"I just wanted to give you-"

But Travis didn't get to finish his sentence, because out of a strawberry plant to the side, a raccoon burst out. It had two large, beady eyes, with a black mask of fur, like Travis's two black eyes. It was large and furry, but not in the nice type of furry-in the mean way. It's fangs were bared menacingly, like sharp knives ready to cut something up.

But most importantly, it was foaming. A lot. A huge bushel of white, frothy stuff covered its whole mouth as it sneered at Travis and Katie.

Katie yelped, and instantly stiffened. Travis remained paralyzed with fear, because he was afraid of leaving Katie and also afraid it would lunge for him if he ran. Through his paralysis, he felt Katie's shaking, cold fingers slip into his fingers, which were shaking and cold as well. On any hour other than this, he would've gone totally crazy.

As Katie's hand slipped into his, the feel of her hard, dirty nails reminded him why he was here. He was here because he liked Katie Gardner. A lot. So much that he would protect her from a rabid raccoon, supposedly.

And then Travis knew what he had to do. He reached down, and grabbed a crow bar from the dirt. As the raccoon lunged forward, he didn't have time to even think about _why_ a _crowbar_ was even there, he just struck it. Hard. Katie had let go of his hand now, and was watching in amazement as the large, fat, furry raccoon was knocked to the ground and passed out with a sickening thud.

Travis dropped the crowbar, and they both stared at each other. Then at the raccoon. And then back at each other. Katie finally spoke. "Well, that was strange"

"Yeah, I guess."

"That was awfully nice of you, knocking out a raccoon for me."

"Um, you're welcome?" It was hard talking to girls.

"it's kind of funny once you look at it."

"What? The raccoon?"

"Yeah."

Travis looked at it, but he didn't really see anything funny about it. The racoon's tongue was hanging out of its mouth, to the side, and it still totally creeped him out. He shivered.

The distance between them was getting smaller and smaller. _OK, what now?! What do I do?! What do I do?! What do I do?!_ But Travis didn't need help with that as Katie stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him softly on the lips. The whole time, Travis's brain was totally frozen, and he couldn't figure out what to do. _Do I run my hand through her hair? Do I kiss her back? Like, kiss her really hard? Do I wrap my arm around her? What do I DO?!_

The kiss was over way too fast.

And when it was over, Katie laughed. "You're so dumb, Stoll! You didn't even kiss back, and I know you've liked me since we were twelve. Two years waiting, and you don't even kiss back!" she cracked up.

"Huh? Wait! Was that real? Did you just _kiss_ me?"Travis asked, confused.

"Yes, Travis!" Katie said, still laughing at his dumbness. "Hey, what's that bag of marshmallows for?"

"Oh, that," Travis said as he sheepishly picked up the bag from where it had fallen on the ground during the raccoon fight. He folded the note he was holding in his clenched hands and put it in his pocket. He wouldn't be needing it now that she kissed him.

"It's for just in case" he finished the sentence he started.

"Just in case what?"

Travis looked down. "In case you punch me in the groin 'cause you're mad at me."

Katie looked at the bad like she was considering something. Then, a devilish grin spread across her face. Before he even knew what was going on, she had given him a swift punch in the groin.

"OW!" Travis dropped to the ground and curled up into a ball, eyes bugging out as he rolled around in pain.

"That," Katie said, "Is for what you did to our roof."

"Sorry," Travis choked out. Katie helped him up, and Travis managed a smile as the pain receded. Katie stared pointedly at his bag of marshmallows.

"What?!" Katie was starting to creep out Travis.

"Aren't you going to let your girlfriend eat some of your marshmallows?" Katie asked sweetly. Travis rolled her eyes at her deceiving voice, but opened the bag. "Fine" he said, even though he secretly wanted to share them anyway.

And together two of them, now boyfriend and girlfriend had a very romantic picnic of marshmallows.

The end!

**I hope all of you guys enjoyed that! Sorry about the random rabid raccoon (alliteration!)part…that was just an example of the strange, random thoughts that pop into my head:) And the marshmallows, I didn't intend for that to be part of the story, it just sort of happened. Actually, I didn't intend for anything in this story-I just made it up as I went!**

**Have an amazing Wednesday! :)**


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